Native Peoples of the Plateau

Native Peoples of the Plateau — page 1 — N O R T H W E S T P ARCTI C S U B A R C T I C C O A S T C A L I F O R N I A L A T E A U G R E A T B A SIN ST E W H T U O S P L A I N S T S A E T H S NORT A E H SOUT PLATEAU REGION OF NORTH AMERICA CULTURAL REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA Plateau Northwest Coast California Plains Southeast Southwest Great Basin Northeast Subarctic Arctic Other Cultural area border International border State province border

Native Peoples of the Plateau — page 2 — INTRODUCTION C oyote was angry because a giant monster had eaten all of his friends He decided to stop the monster and told the monster to eat him too When the monster had eaten him Coyote found all the other animals safe inside the monster Coyote started a fire inside the monster’s belly The monster died and all the animals escaped To celebrate Coyote decided to create a new creature humans Coyote cut the monster into four pieces and threw the pieces to the north south east and west Where the pieces landed humans came to be Finally Coyote washed the monster’s blood from his hands The drops of blood created more people This is one of many stories describing how the Plateau Indians came to live in the Columbia River plateau This area is a flat raised surface of land a plateau surrounded by the Rocky Mountains Canadian Coast Mountains and Cascade Range The region covers parts of Canada and the United States including British Columbia Montana Idaho Washington Oregon and California It is filled with lakes rivers and trees The Plateau Indians who live in this area descended from people who spoke languages from several language families 5

Native Peoples of the Plateau — page 3 — PEOPLES OF THE PLATEAU The Plateau region was the original home of many American Indian nations This map shows the areas where some of them lived before Europeans arrived in the region Shuswap Shuswap Chilcotin Chilcotin O kana g an O kana g an Kootenai Kootenai Spokane Spokane Pend Pend d’Oreille d’Oreille Spokane Spokane Palouse Palouse Coeur Coeur d’Alene d’Alene Walla Walla Walla Walla Umatilla Umatilla Cayuse Cayuse Nez Perce Nez Perce Flathead Flathead Yakama Yakama Klamath Klamath Modoc Modoc CULTURAL AREAS Northwest Coast California Coast Plateau Plateau NW Coast overlap Plains Great Basin Subarctic Cultural area border International border State province border These families included Dene DEN-ay Salishan SAY-li-shen Sahaptin sah-HAP-tyn Kootenai KOOT-un-nay and Klamath Modoc KLAM-uth MO-dock There are several well-known Plateau nations The Nez Perce nes-PURSE Cayuse ky-YOOS Palouse puh-LOOS Umatilla Yoo-ma-TILL-a Walla Walla WOL-uh WOL-uh and Yakama YAK-uh-muh lived on the Northern Plateau The Pend d’Oreille Pon-duh-RAY also known as the Kalispel KAL-uh-spell Coeur d’Alene kur-duh-LANE Flathead and Spokane spo KAN lived on the Interior Plateau The Klamath and Modoc lived in the southernmost region of the Plateau The Kootenai lived in a region covering parts of British Columbia Idaho and Montana 6

Native Peoples of the Plateau — page 4 — Along with the Kootenai British Columbia was also home to several other nations including the Shuswap SHUH-shwahp Okanagan OH-keh-nah-gan and Chilcotin chil-COH-tin The Plateau peoples were surrounded by the native peoples of the Subarctic the Northwest Coast California the Plains and the Great Basin Each of those cultures influenced the Plateau Indians The southern part of the Plateau overlaps with the northern part of the Great Basin So the cultures of the LANGUAGE FAMILIES OF THE PLATEAU NATIONS LANGUAGE FAMILY MAJOR PEOPLES Klamath-Modoc Modoc Klamath Kootenai Kootenai Sahaptin Salishan Nez Perce Cayuse Palouse Yakama Walla Walla and Umatilla Spokane Pend d’Oreille Coeur d’Alene Flathead Shuswap and Okanagan Dene Chilcotin 7

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